Librarian of Alexandria

2018-11-02

Quede Names

At first glance, the queder's conventions for naming are remarkably simpler than most of the other peoples. In general, a quede will have two names: in order, a given name chosen by the parents at birth, and a surname taken from the surname of one of their parents. Which parent's surname is taken will vary based on local custom: in some places, a quede will take the surname of a parent of the same gender; in another, the surname of a parent of a different gender; yet in others, the surname of the parent in whose ancestral home they live; yet in others, the oldest of the parents. The queder rarely change their names, and certainly don't bother changing their names for marriage (although it's not unheard of for a quede to move to another village and adopt a new name to accompany their new life!)

Sadly, the story of quede names is nonetheless complicated by the fact that they have, when compared to most folk, remarkably few given names: the most common two dozen names account for the vast majority of queder. It's not uncommon to walk into a place of work and find four laborers there all named Étun. Indeed, shared names are so common that some parents give the same name to multiple children. The river-town of Elascín was home to a locally famous quede, a book-binder named Pégno Telbasci, who had five sons—all five of them also named Pégno Telbasci!

The queder deal with this remarkable state of affairs by compensating with a truly stunning number of ways of building nick-names. In our hypothetical work-place featuring four queder named Étun, all of them likely have their names registered in local ledgers as Étun but nonetheless are known by some specific variation on the name. There are a number of ways of constructing such variations:

  • Every name has its short forms, usually created by dropping the final syllable: thus Étun might be called Étt, Yanna called Yan, a Pégno called Pénn.
  • Among those names which are longer than two syllables, one could drop the final syllable (as in Adrisc for Adrisci or Demel for Demela), but might also drop the middle vowel (as in Asci or Demma) or sometimes even the initial syllable (as in Drisci or Mela.)
  • Adjectives, especially simple adjectives like liga 'little', adora 'big', cilla 'tall', isca 'fat', or reggia 'cheerful', can be combined with the name: a quede named Adrisci may be called Liga-Adrisci or Isca-Adrisci to distinguish her from the other Adriscis. Many of these adjectives no longer carry a strong meaning when used to create nicknames, and certainly none of these are considered negative in any particular way! (That's not to say no quede would refer to another via a pejorative name, but the queder consider it remarkably bad luck to coin a negative nickname that gains any kind of usage!)
  • Various endings can be used to create stock diminutives or pet names, often replacing a final consonant if it exists: -ye, -tta, and -pan are the most common, to the degree than Étuye is sometimes used as a generic name for a given unspecified quede! Still others exist: -en, -an, -gni, -ra, and -qua are all well-attested, and a dozen others might be gathered in any given quede settlement.
  • Some endings, over time, are even added on top of yet other endings: you're as likely to meet an Étuyetta as you are an Étuttaye.
  • Longer compounds are somewhat less common, but by no means unheard of, especially those made with ta 'of'. They may reference an occupation, as in Yanna-ta-Rescar "Yanna-of-Arms" or Yanna-ta-Gieso "Yanna-of-Fish", or they may reference a place of birth or living, as in Yanna-ta-Ciama "Yanna-of-the-Woods_ or Yanna-ta-Dar "Yanna-of-the-Bay". These usually appear with a shortened form of the name, as well: indeed, Pénn-ta-Dar is a figure of local legend among the quede towns of the tallgrass plains in the north.

Consequently, despite a wealth of Étuns and Pegnos and Yannas and Adriscis in the official ledgers, a given quede might not know anyone in their home-town by the same name: one of them may be Liga-Étun, another Étunni, another Étuye, and another Étt-ta-Quami, or one of any of dozens of other variations, and no-one would dream of mistaking one Étun for another.

Tir-Bhahat is a collection of fragments of fantastic world-building. You can read more about it here.